Watchtower Fights $200K Tax Bill From Hudson Valley Town

The umbrella organization if Jehovah's Witnesses is fighting a $200,000 from an Orange County town.

The Times Herald-Record reports that Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, which is the parent organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, is fighting a tax bill from Newburgh. The tax is for fire and other special district taxes on three properties owned by the organization. Two of the properties are hotels purchased in the Town of Newburgh which now have a combined market value of over $20 million.

Newburgh has assessed the two hotel properties for $196,000 in charges for 2016 through this year for Orange Lake Fire District and lighting and water districts, according to the Times Herald-Record. They also assessed the third property for $1,600 in special district taxes over three years.

Watchtower filed a petition last month claiming that Newburgh had mistakenly or intentionally miscoded the properties, according to the article.

According to the Times Herald-Record, the hotels have been used to house workers that are building Watchtower's world headquarters in Warwick. The third property that the tax bill is for is a vacant building on Route 300 in Newburgh, close to the Route 300 17K intersection.